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Hi Guys,
I own a Krasnogorsk K-3, I purely use it for fun, not professionally. I've put about three rolls through it at this stage, and although I'm happy with the quality of the footage, I notice a large dust build up on all the the footage, as well as some continuous straight scratching on the right side of the film. Have been quoted £400 to have the camera professionally cleaned and serviced, but it's not worth that so I'm not really willing to fork out that much just for a camera that I use for fun. Was wondering if anyone here has experience of cleaning this camera themselves? And if they could give any advice to potentially fixing this at home? I gave the camera a good blow with compressed air, and a little brush the last time I put a roll through it, but still got the recurring issues. Any other help would be massively appreciated!
I have attached some images for reference.
Best,
Jack

Hello group,
Solving the (hopefully) last problems with my S 16 K-3. Looking good so far. No emulsion scratches (after a lot of very careful polishing the gate in the right areas - loop formers removed) and just found the cause for the occasional base/backing scratch (exactly where the regular 16mm frame would end opposite pulldown claw. It's caused by the plastic part that leads the film out of (top) and back into (bottom) the sprocket/roller assembly. The part has sharp edges/burrs on both sides: top and bottom side. Too difficult to remove the part, so I'll tape off the rollers and some light wet (always fine machine oil, not water) sanding with 1000 and 2000 grade should solve the base/backing scratches once and forever.
Now those nasty orange-red light leaks (sprocket hole side). I see these - looking exactly the same - on a lot of K-3 footage on YouTube and Vimeo. I went through the footage frame by frame ( "," and "." keys on YouTube). These occur roughly along 3-4 frames (with some light spill) 26 to 30 frames before and less frames after a new shot (the white flash frame). Checked with scrap film: this locates the leakage exactly at the back side of the spools - and the emulsion is inside black "daylight" spools (???) Can't come from the footage counter: sealed it off with gaffer tape. It's clearly light that finds its way slowly to these areas when the camera is not running but exposed to bright light. If I don't expose the camera to a lot of light, or only have a short break, between shots: no light leaks there. The fact that the baffle plate is a silver-gray with a dot pattern (as opposed to matte black - the way it should be)) certainly doesn't help matters. Door and lock are always sealed tight with black camera tape.
This seems to remain a mystery for many a K-3 user. Painting any parts inside matte black is out of the question (I think): it can chip and probably cause chemical reactions.
Any ideas and tips highly appreciated.
Thanks in advance,
Christian